Leaving education early : putting vocational education and training centre stage; Volume II: Evaluating policy impact : executive summary

Early leaving from education and training (ELET) is understood at EU level as a failure to complete upper secondary education or a failure to gain qualifications or school leaving certificates. It can lead to a vicious cycle of unemployment, social exclusion and poverty, with costs for the individual and society that include reduced levels of economic activity, higher unemployment, poorer health outcomes and demands on state welfare systems. The EU objective of reducing the share of early leavers to below 10% of young people aged 18 to 24 was first adopted as part of the Lisbon strategy and has been retained as one of the Europe 2020 headline targets. This Cedefop study focuses on the contribution that vocational education and training (VET) can make to reducing ELET. It is published in two volumes, the first of which looks to understand better the magnitude of early leaving from VET (ELVET). This second volume draws on examination of 337 initiatives across Europe that had the objective of reducing early leaving through VET. It aims to support national and EU policy- and decision-makers in improving ELET data collection and monitoring, and in developing measures to empower VET in combating and counteracting ELET.